Work closely with Sales and Customer Service to provide technical expertise, helping customers identify the right prototyping and production solutions for their needs. As an Application Engineer, you will support a wide range of projects, guide customers through technical challenges, and use your broad knowledge of Protolabs’ service offering to drive new and growth business.
What You'll Do:
- Support new prototype launches and ongoing production engineering for new and growing customers across EMEA.
- Respond quickly and accurately to customer technical queries, including material, mouldability, and part design challenges.
- Understand customer technical requirements and recommend suitable design changes and solutions.
- Review 3D CAD data, DFM feedback, and RFQs, helping customers implement required adjustments.
- Provide technical guidance to customers and sales on process capabilities, limitations, risks, and project feasibility.
- Work cross-functionally with operations, quality, contracts, and engineering teams to support project delivery.
- Escalate or hand over projects to specialist teams where needed.
- Deliver strong pre-sales and customer support through calls, emails, chat, design reviews, webinars, and occasional site visits or trade events.
- Support sales enablement through technical training, presentations, and shadowing for new team members.
- Follow internal processes, documentation, and response-time expectations while carrying out additional duties as required.
What It Takes:
- Experience with 3D CAD modelling and the ability to read 2D technical drawings.
- Background in mechanical or manufacturing engineering or a related field.
- Knowledge of injection moulding, CNC machining, 3D printing, or design for manufacture principles is highly desirable.
- Customer-focused, goal-oriented, and comfortable working to clear metrics and deadlines.
- Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and a sense of urgency.
- Able to manage multiple priorities, work independently or collaboratively, and respond well to feedback.
- Early-career profile with 0–2 years’ experience, depending on background.
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a relevant field, or equivalent practical experience.
- Fluent English required; French, German, or Italian would be an advantage.
What's In It For You:
- We have an open and collegial corporate culture with flat hierarchies in an international environment.
- Extensive e-learning platform with over 300 courses.
- Access to a wide variety of employee benefits through cooperation platforms.
- Free parking, free charging stations for e-bikes/scooters, free drinks, and a fruit basket.
- Flexible benefits portal for individual salary optimization.
- Permanent employment contract, 40-hour work week, and 30 vacation days.
- Flexible work arrangements and opportunities for hybrid working.
Skills Required
- Experience with 3D CAD modelling and ability to read 2D technical drawings
- Background in mechanical or manufacturing engineering or related field
- Knowledge of injection moulding, CNC machining, 3D printing, or design for manufacture principles
- Customer-focused with ability to work to metrics and deadlines
- Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and urgency
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and work independently or collaboratively
- Early-career profile with 0-2 years' experience (depending on background)
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in a relevant field, or equivalent practical experience
- Fluent English
- French, German, or Italian language skills
Protolabs Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Protolabs and has not been reviewed or approved by Protolabs.
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Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, and vision options are broadly available and described as good to excellent. Additional protections like short- and long-term disability and life insurance bolster the overall package.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — A starting PTO allotment plus paid holidays, along with added wellness and volunteer time, is emphasized, with some roles noting PTO growth over tenure. Paid caregiver leave appears in postings and supports flexibility for life events.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with company match and immediate vesting is offered, supporting long-term savings. This foundation is frequently cited alongside core financial benefits as a strong element of total rewards.
Protolabs Insights
What We Do
Protolabs is the world's fastest digital manufacturing source for rapid prototyping and on-demand production. The technology-enabled company produces custom parts and assemblies in as fast as 1 day with automated 3D printing, CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication, and injection molding processes. Our digital approach to manufacturing enables accelerated time to market, reduces development and production costs, and minimizes risk throughout the product life cycle. 3D Printing Our 3D printing service offers a wide selection of materials and technologies to create prototypes and end-use parts with complex geometries and detailed features. With tight process controls, careful design reviews, and extensive quality monitoring, we ensure precise and repeatable 3D-printed parts, every time. CNC Machining We use 3- and 5-axis milling along with turning to machine parts from commercial-grade plastics and metals. Our online quoting system and automated manufacturing process enable us to ship parts within 24 hours, helping customers accelerate development and reduce time to market. Sheet Metal Fabrication Protolabs is an industry leader in quick-turn sheet metal parts for both prototyping and low-volume production. Our digital approach to manufacturing enables us to fabricate sheet metal parts in as fast as 5 days. Additionally, we can support our customers’ development efforts with component assemblies, several finish options, and screen printing. Injection Molding Our injection molding service offers two options—prototyping and on-demand manufacturing—which provide customers a tooling solution that aligns with their project’s requirements. It’s used for quick-turn prototyping, bridge tooling, and low-volume production of up to 10,000+ parts in 15 days or less.
